LOAD 213 Blog Hop

LOAD 213Welcome to my Artful Adventures post for the LOAD213 Blog Hop!  If you are following in order, you have come here from my talented friend Beth Soler’s Scrapping Wonders website.

Do you ever get together with others who share your love of a particular hobby?  If so, you know they can identify with your feelings of how wonderful you think your hobby is!  If scrapbooking is something you like to do, and you want to find some others who share that passion, then Lain Ehmann’s Layout-a-day (LOAD) February 2013 may be just for you!  The goal is to create at least one scrapbook page each day for a particular month, and this time it’s February. Does one page a day sound overwhelming?  It’s not — read on!

Along with the basic goal, each LOAD has a theme, daily prompts, and at least one sample layout for each day.  If the theme doesn’t particularly tickle your fancy, you can still participate — just get your pages done!  There have been LOAD months where I have completed a page day, and others that I ended up with my total number of pages for the month, but perhaps didn’t get them done on the 1 per day schedule.  I didn’t care — I still ended up with a pile of completed pages!  Yeah ME!

If you are afraid that you won’t be able to complete a page each day and have time for your day-to-day life, never fear! With a little planning, I’m sure you can do it.  We all handle it a little differently.  Some people may slack off on having a spic-n-span environment, some may use the crockpot for help with meals, some people have a stack of pictures they want to get put on pages and have their own theme…. You get the idea, it may be a little different than other months of your life, but it can be done!

This is one of my favorite layouts!  It is a 2 page layout at the end of LOAD212.  It is digital and has a mini version of all the other pages I had made during February 2012.

Artful Adventures Final 2 page layout for LOAD212

Whether you are a digital scrapper, traditional paper scrapper, or combination “hybrid” scrapper,

You Will Have Fun and Complete Scrapbook Pages!

There is a private Flickr group for the event.  You upload your completed page, and receive comments about how fabulous your page is, and how smart you were to think of doing that way!  Of course, you reciprocate the favor and pass on the love by commenting on other people’s layouts they share with the group.  Soon you will be pinching yourself to see if it is really true — your dream of having a whole bunch of scrapping friends really has come true!

Artful Adventures Progressive Page Sample

Progressive Scrapbook Page Technique

If you do paper layouts, be sure to have paper, pictures, adhesive and some embellishments for your pages.  If you’ve been scrapping for awhile, only buy adhesive.  USE the stuff you already have!  THAT is one of the benefits of LOAD — you can use up your stash. Sshhh….and then you’ll have a reason to get new stuff!  I won’t tell, if you don’t!

For digital pages, you may want to go through some of your pictures as a reminder of all the people who live in the digital world of your hard drives.   Stop holding them captive and let them get out onto some scrapbook page layouts. I don’t print digital pages at home, but if you do, you’ll want to be sure and have plenty of ink on hand for your printer!

If you sometimes feel stuck in getting a page together, you may want to try the “progressive” page technique.  I did a post on the technique last year, and you can find it here.

Artful Adventures Using Templates

Templates and Scraplifts

Also, remember that you can use templates, and by rotating or flipping them, you can really give a page a run for the money!  Here’s a few thoughts on using templates or doing some scraplifting.

If you aren’t signed up yet, click here to learn more and to see if there is still room and join us!

Stop by again, any time!  I enjoy comments and try to always reply!


Here is the list of the LOAD213 Blog Hop Participants and you’ll see where to hop to next!

Heather Dubarry: http://noexcusescrapbooking.com
Alison Day: http://adayinthelifeor5.blogspot.com/
Danielle Taylor: http://scrapperonthestreet.com
Alison Charlton: http://scrappinginsingapore.blogspot.com/
Christy Strickler: http://myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com/
Lynnette Nagle: http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/
Julie Shepler: www.sheplerfamily.com
Joy McHargue: http://www.studiowowjoy.com/
Kelli Panique: http://scrapbookgirl71.com/
Cathy Holiday: pikespeakscrapper.blogspot.com
Leslie Smith: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/
Lori Martin: http://www.chaosandcraziness.com/   
Connie Hanks: http://ClickyChickCreates.wordpress.com
Betsye Erazo: betsyerose.blogspot.com
Marcia Fortunato: mfortunato.blogspot.com
Regina Huminski: http://ginabeth1.blogspot.com/
Beth Soler: http://www.scrappingwonders.com
You are here:  Kristie Sloan’s Artful Adventures: https://kristiesloan.com/blog/
Next:  Danielle Hunter: http://ecoscrapbook.blogspot.com/
Katrina Forman: http://k84mansramblings.blogspot.com
Jessica Baldwin: www.inkyaddict.com
Cheryl McCain: http://cherylmccainphotography.com
Briel Schmitz: http://scrappingwindow.blogspot.com/

Rethink the Size of Your Scrapbook

Welcome to the third post in this series on ways to get more scrapbooking done. Whether it’s a little tweek to how we think about something, or actually changing the physical items we are using, we are looking at ways to move forward to get more pages completed!

Let’s move on to Step 3: Does Size Matter for Your Scrapbook?  Some people find that it is much easier to create scrapbooks from smaller sized pages.  They don’t feel the need to use as many photos per page as possible, to get the most bang for their buck, so to speak.  Other people also find it easier to design on smaller pages.  If you find it takes you forever to create a 12×12 page, try 8 1/2 x 11, or 8×8.  Don’t forget 6×6 albums which can really help you scrap even more quickly!  You may even think about using a method some call progressive scrapbooking.

You may even like to do mini-books for events such as birthdays, weddings, holidays and that’s perfectly fine.  One of the most important things to remember is that there is no “right way” to scrapbook.  It’s all about preserving memories!  So, whatever size scrapbook is more comfortable for you to work in, you may decide to make that your go-to size.

No matter what your favorite size album to work in, you’ll want to take into consideration what you will be doing with the album.  Are you are working to put it together as a heritage album and a large album will give you a lot of room to work in?  Do you only have a handful of photos of a special event and you are going to put them together and give the book away as a gift?  Or are you working on an up-to-date, day to day album of your current life and events?  It’s okay to use different sized albums!

Flickr photo credit: Bunches and Bits {Karina}

If you are working on projects in which you are documenting your current life, such as Ali Edward’s project, Week in the Life, a documentary project to capture the simple everyday details of your life with photos and words each week, you’ll want to take into consideration being able to keep up!  You may find it easier to keep up with a two page layout of the week if you are using an 8.5×11 page size as opposed to 12×12.

Many people are using the page protectors which are divided into sections, allowing you to slip pictures, journal cards, etc. into each pocket; especially those who are participating in the widely popular Project Life.  Becky Higgins has a line of product available for Project Life, and many other places are carrying similar products. The little pockets on these protectors can hold little embellishments or other little items and in a way can sometimes be tiny pages on their own!

Stop back in for our discussion of Step 4: Ring Bound vs. Post Bound

Thank you for stopping in.  Tell us about your favorite size pages to scrapbook in!

Disclaimer: I am not being compensated for any product lines mentioned in this post.